In this section

CATHEDRAL

The history of the Old Minster
of Winchester, setting aside the
legends of King Lucius, may be
said to begin with the coming of St. Birinus in 635
and his conversion to Christianity of King Kynegils.
Birinus having made his head-quarters at Dorchester
(Oxon), the bishopric of Wessex was administered
from thence till his fourth successor Hedda transferred
his seat to Winchester, to the church which, as
tradition records, Kynegils had founded. The design
of this church can only be left to conjecture, but
Wolstan in his poem on St. Swithun (fn. 1) mentions a
tower, apparently a gateway tower, which seems to
have stood at a little distance from the west end of
the church. Whether St. Swithun, himself a great
builder, did anything to the church is unknown, but
St. Athelwold (963–84) greatly enlarged it, or,
according to the later account, completely rebuilt it.
The poetical description of this church by Wolstan,
printed in Mabillon's Acta Sanctorum, is unfortunately
very obscure, but the church seems to have been
finished by Bishop Elphege and to have had a
central tower, north and south aisles, perhaps transepts, an eastern apse with a crypt beneath it and a
forecourt at the west. The complexity of the building is very much insisted on by the poet, but not in
terms which make the matter any clearer; the crypt
and tower were the work of Elphege, but probably
only as completions of a scheme left unfinished by
St. Athelwold. The church was dedicated in 980
and again c. 993, the former date probably marking
the completion of as much of the building as would
suffice for holding services and the latter the end of
the whole work. The tower is described at length
and seems to have risen five stories above the roofs,
with stair turrets at the angles and a spire crowned
by a large gilt weathercock. There was also a large
organ, which is the subject of an elaborate description.

Cnut was a great benefactor to Winchester and
was buried in the Old Minster in 1035, and Stigand,
who gave the great rood in the nave, was also buried
there in 1069. But the duration of St. Athelwold's
building was short. In 1079 Walkelin the first
Norman bishop began the great church which still
remains in part, and in 1093 it was far enough
advanced to be ready for service. The Saxon church
was abandoned on 8 April, St. Swithun's shrine
was removed to the new church on 15 July, and on
the 16th the workmen began to pull down the old
church, leaving nothing but one porticus and the high
altar. Next year these also were taken down and
many relics of the saints found under the altar.
From this record it is evident that the new church
was on a different site from the old, and the reference
in Rudborne to the chapel on the site of St. Swithun's
grave, near the north door of the nave of the church,
makes it almost certain that the old church stood to
the north of the present nave and perhaps partly on
the site of the north transept. The date of the
completion of Walkelin's church is nowhere recorded,
but the work to be seen at the west end of the nave
above the main vault is of early character and probably not later than the first decade of the 12th
century. The great tower over the crossing was at
any rate finished by 1100, when William Rufus was
buried beneath it. It fell in 1107, probably on
account of the badness of the foundation (peat overlying gravel), and the adjoining parts of both transepts were reconstructed when the tower was rebuilt.
There was a second tower to the church, which was
begun and finished in 1200, and as this clearly was
not one of those prepared for but never completed at
the outer angles of both transepts, it is probably to
be connected with the foundations which exist beyond
the west end of the present nave.

The first enlargement of Walkelin's plan took place
in 1202, when Bishop Godfrey de Lucy began to build
the Lady chapel with its flanking chapels and the
aisled building from which they open eastwards, the
object being clearly to provide not only a Lady chapel
but an adequate place for the shrine of St. Swithun,
with a procession path round it. The work evidently
went on slowly and changes of design are noticeable,
but unfortunately from this time the documentary
evidence for the church is lamentably deficient and
the building itself is its only historian. Walkelin's
eastern chapel, with the ambulatory and east ends of
the aisles of his presbytery, was destroyed in the
13th century, and early in
the 14th century the work of
rebuilding the presbytery was
begun from the east; there
was, however, a break in the
work, which was resumed later
in the same century and
carried as far as the east piers
of the tower. This part is
probably due to Bishop
Edington (1345–66), who at
the end of his episcopate was
rebuilding the west end of
the nave. It is to be presumed that this latter work was undertaken on account
of the ruinous state of the west front of Walkelin's
church.

Lucy. Gules three luces or.

William of Wykeham (1366–1404) seems to have
done some work on the church early in his episcopate, about 1371, but his many other occupations
prevented him from paying serious attention to his
cathedral till 1393, when he took steps to raise a
building fund, ordering the prior, sub-prior and convent to contribute a considerable amount yearly for
seven years. In 1394, however, he seems to have
undertaken the work of remodelling the nave on his
own account and carried it on till his death in 1404,
leaving its completion to his successors. The next
structural work of any importance was the remodelling
of the east bay of the Lady chapel, both bays being
revaulted; this belongs to the time of Bishop
Courtenay, 1486–92, and the vault of the south-east
chapel was rebuilt in the time of his successor
Thomas Langton, 1493–1500. The last bishop to
make any considerable alteration was Richard Fox,
1500–28, who rebuilt the presbytery aisles with
their vaults and the east gable of the presbytery, and
added the flying buttresses and the high wooden
vault there. He also inclosed the presbytery with
stone screens which bear the date 1525.

Since his time the architectural history of Winchester Cathedral has been full of the minor repairs
from which such a building is never exempt, but
otherwise uneventful, until within the last decade
the condition of the eastern part of the church
became so unsound that its immediate repair and
underpinning was necessary; nor was it found possible
to stop there, but the whole of the transepts have
now been treated in the same way and the work is
being extended to the nave. The foundations, laid
originally on the peat, are now being carried down
to the gravel below, the whole work being made
much more difficult by the fact that the gravel is
well beneath the permanent water level of the site.

In spite of the rebuilding of its eastern arm and
the remodelling of its nave, the complete plan of
Walkelin's church can be laid down, though several
details of the elevations must remain doubtful. It
had an eastern arm of three bays with north and
south aisles, an apse round which the aisles were
continued as an ambulatory, square-ended chapels at
the east of both aisles, having their east walls in line
with the eastern limit of the apse, and beyond the
apse to the east an aisleless apsidal chapel. All this
is demonstrated by the original crypts which remain
practically in perfect condition, and of the upper
works the levels of the triforium and clearstory and
the springing of the aisle vaults can be deduced from
the remains of their western bays against the eastern
piers of the central tower. The piers of the main
arcade were doubtless like those in the transepts, but
the arcade round the apse had large circular columns,
the base of one of these remaining in Gardiner's
chantry on the north side of the feretory. It is,
however, very difficult to understand the design of
the square-ended eastern chapels of the aisles, which
may have been carried up as towers flanking the
junction of the principal eastern chapel with the apse.
In this connexion it is interesting to note the evidence
of a similar arrangement in the 13th-century east
end of the church.

Walkelin's central tower was entirely removed after
its fall in 1107, unless parts of its piers remain cased
by the 12th-century work of the existing tower, but
his transepts remain with no very considerable alteration, with east and west aisles, and tribunes connecting
the aisles at the outer end of each transept. The
transepts are of three bays, the aisles vaulted with
groined vaults, where the original vaults remain, while
the main span has been designed for a flat ceiling, but
now shows the plain roof timbers. The three stories
of the elevation give the effect of being of equal
height with each other, though as a matter of fact
the main arcade is slightly taller than the triforium,
and the triforium than the clearstory. The arches
are everywhere square-edged and the capitals simple
cushions, the masonry wide-jointed and the tooling
coarse, and the attached shafts semicircular or a little
more than a semicircle in plan. The main arcade
has arches of two orders, the triforium pairs of
arches under a single inclosing arch, and the clearstory plain single openings framing single roundheaded windows and flanked by small arches opening
from a wall passage. Between the bays a half-round
shaft on a pilaster runs to the top of the wall. In the
tribunes the main arches are of a single order and have
a round column as a middle pier, the wall over the
arches ending abruptly at the triforium floor level.
A shaft is, however, carried up from the capital
of the column, as if some stage to match the
triforium had been originally designed, and at
either end, where the tribune joins the triforium,
a shaft and pilaster are set against the wall face,
as between the normal bays, but end just above
the level of the triforium capitals. The arrangement is meaningless, and the shaft was never
carried up into the clearstory, as the treatment of the
arcade opening to the wall passage shows, being here
continuous between the main openings. The design
of the transepts was altered during the progress of the
work, it being proposed to build towers over the end
bays of each aisle, and the piers are in consequence
strengthened by additional members; but there are
evidences of settlements probably caused by the extra
weight of the towers, and it is probable that they
were never finished. The absolute simplicity and
lack of ornamental detail is extremely striking, though
on the exterior this severity is relieved by billetornament on the string course below the triforium
windows, and on the labels of all the principal windows.
The gable of the south transept is also relieved by two
tiers of blank arcades; that of the north transept has
been rebuilt in the 15th century, and now contains a
rose window.

Enough is left of Walkelin's nave, after its transformation by Wykeham, to show that it was of the
same general detail as the transepts. In the bays
immediately west of the crossing some of the original
capitals and shafts have been preserved, no doubt on
account of the rood screen and side chapels which
were not disturbed during the alterations. The
11th-century masonry has also in many cases been
left standing in the piers, but cut back to the later
section, the wide joints and smaller stones making it
easily distinguishable from Wykeham's masonry.
While the arches of the main arcade have been
entirely removed, the inclosing arches of the triforium,
with the walls above their level, remain almost intact,
and above the present vault rise the tops of the shafts
and pilasters dividing the bays. An interesting point
to be noticed in this connexion is that these shafts
occur only in alternate bays, with a few exceptions,
as if the alternate shafts had stopped below the level
of the clearstory, suggesting an alternate treatment of
the bays of the nave, or possibly only of the clearstory,
like that in the transepts. Several theories might be
adduced, if space allowed. To the west of the nave
as it now stands there exist very heavy foundations
of a west front consisting of a square building flanked
by oblong buildings, the south wall of the south oblong
still standing to some height and forming part of a
boundary wall to a garden. This has often been
explained as a front flanked by two western towers,
but it is much more likely that the square is the base
of a single tower in the middle of the front, flanked
by shallow western transepts; a form of plan akin to
those of Ely and Bury St. Edmunds, though less
developed, the scheme derived from Saxon prototypes.
It is perhaps this single tower which explains the
already quoted record of 1200, referred to above, in
which case it must be assumed that its upper story was
left unfinished until that time. The 11th-century
crypt, as already said, remains in very complete
condition, vaulted throughout with groined vaults of
thickly plastered rubble, having, like other early vaults,
ashlar courses at the springing of the groins. The
entrances were from the north-west and south-west
angles, opening to the west bays of the aisles of the
presbytery; the north-west entrance, now opening to
the east aisle of the transept, is still in use, and there
is an external entrance in the fourth bay of the south
aisle of the crypt. The nave of the crypt is vaulted
in two spans, with a line of five round columns down
the middle; the two western bays are now blocked
up with rubble, and have doubtless been so since the
fall and rebuilding of the central tower. In each bay
are narrow arched openings to the aisles, which have
small round-headed windows in each bay, and the
eastern chapel is similarly planned with a row of
columns down the middle and windows in each bay,
being entered from the ambulatory of the crypt by a
pair of round-headed arches springing from a central
column. The cushion capital is here as in the upper
church the usual form, but in some instances, as also
once in the transepts, a plain chamfered capital occurs,
giving a very archaic look to the work; it is akin to
those of the sub-vault to the dorter at Westminster
Abbey, which must date from c. 1060.

There are two wells in the crypt, one between the
two eastern columns of the central arcade of the nave
and one in the south-east chapel. The only structural alterations which have here taken place are the
insertion of foundations for the later arcades in the
ambulatory and the thickening of the outer walls of
the north-east and south-east chapels, this latter
apparently in the 12th century. The reason for it
must remain doubtful. The 13th-century additions
at the east of the church show, as has been noted,
several evidences of alteration, and it is a matter of
much difficulty, particularly in view of the advanced
detail of some parts, to define how much of it is
Lucy's work and how much is due to later hands.
The western bay of the Lady chapel is demonstrably
older than the upper stories of the side chapels or the
arcades to the west, and, assuming that the additions
were begun from the east, may be taken to be the
oldest part now existing. But that the eastern bay
of the Lady chapel was also part of the first work
may be seen from above the vaults of the side chapels.
The outer wall-faces of the west bay are here seen,
ashlar faced and with a weathered string course, with
the remains of newel stairs at their western angles,
the upper parts of which have been destroyed, apparently in consequence of some failure of the building.
The east walls of the upper story of the side chapels
butt against the ashlar of the Lady chapel, and the
string already noted runs into them, and evidently
continued into the east bay, though now destroyed
by the refacing of the walls. It therefore seems
clear that in the original scheme the side chapels were
of one story only, and that their carrying up as low
towers is a later alteration.

Again, over the south arcade of the building west
of the Lady chapel, here called the vestibule, traces
remain, but much damaged by the late repairs, of
three gabled roofs over the south aisle, with their
ridges north and south. The present south elevation
of this aisle would accord very badly with such a
scheme, and can hardly be coeval with it; its advanced
character also suggests a date much later than that of
Lucy. The bad quality of the foundation has doubtless caused more, and more serious, alterations than
have been recorded, and it is probable that in this
fact should be found the key to several difficulties
which a study of the building presents.

The Lady chapel has in its east bay seven-light
windows on north, south and east of late 15th-century
style, and below the windows on the outside two subdivided bays of blank traceried arcading, evidently a
reminiscence of the 13th-century arrangement of
which traces remain on the north side, not having
been destroyed on account of a two-story vestry which
formed part of the 15th-century remodelling, and
masked all the lower part of the walls here; a flue
from its south-west angle still remains, with a blocked
doorway from the chapel, and an aumbry close to
it. Within the chapel a panelled string runs beneath
the windows, having three shields on it in each
bay, bearing the arms of the King of England, the
Prince of Wales, the see of Winchester and Bishop
Courtenay, the rebus of Prior Hunton, and the
motto 'In gloriam Dei.' The blocked door on the
north, once opening to the vestry, which is now
destroyed, has Prior Hunton's rebus in its spandrels.
The vault is a fine example, with liernes, and carved
bosses at the intersections; the middle boss has a
crowned figure of our Lady in clouds surrounded by
four angels in a cusped circle. On other bosses are
the arms of the king, the see and Bishops Courtenay
and Langton, and painted on the vault the names
and rebuses of Priors Hunton
and Silkstede.

Courtenay. Or three roundels gules and a label azure with a mitre or upon each pendant.

The lower parts of the
north and south walls are
decorated with a most interesting series of paintings representing the miracles of our
Lady, in two tiers; a diagram
explaining them is kept in
the chapel, and they need not
be further noticed here.

The west bay of the chapel
has a vault like the east bay,
but having the arms of Bishops
Beaufort and Wayneflete, as
well as the names of the priors
as before; the side walls retain their 13th-century
details, having above the canopies of the stalls which
fill the bay a range of six open arches grouped in
pairs under three blank trefoiled heads, while above
them is a pierced quatrefoil between two trefoils, with
outer rebates for glazing frames, and originally lighted
through three arched openings in the outer thickness
of the wall. These openings now come beneath the
roof of the upper story of the side chapels, as already
stated. The lower part of the side walls was originally
ornamented with arcades on Purbeck marble shafts,
like all the rest of this part of the church, but only
the western shafts remain, the rest having been cut
away for the stalls. These belong to c. 1500, and
are of admirable workmanship; there are eleven
places on each side, but without arms and having no
misericordes; their backs have two tiers of tracery
panels, crowned with a coved cornice and traceried
parapet; a gallery runs round at this level and
connects with the wall passages in the side chapels.
The fronts of the stalls are panelled and buttressed,
and the standards have carved finials, and their
buttresses end in little pulpits holding figures of
preaching cardinals or bishops. The screen closing
the west end of the chapel is in seven bays, the middle
bay containing double doors; each bay is divided into
five lights with tracery, and above is a double cove
with pierced parapets forming the gallery front.

Under the Lady chapel is a crypt in three bays,
entered from the north, and also by a forced entrance
from the west, through the apse of Walkelin's eastern
crypt; it has Purbeck marble columns with moulded
capitals, and the vault-ribs have plain chamfers. It
is lighted by single trefoiled lights, the outer openings
of which have been altered at the 15th-century
remodelling.

The north-east chapel, known as the 'Guardian
Angels' ' chapel, from the paintings of angels on its
vault (vault and paintings both being contemporary
with the chapel), retains in the lower part of its north
wall much of the 13th-century arcading, which
originally went round the east and south walls also.
It was in five bays with trefoiled arches, and in the
spandrels between the arches are oval quatrefoils filled
in with Purbeck marble slabs, and probably forming
in the first instance the setting for small images. Above
is a string of Purbeck marble and a second line of
quatrefoils, and the chapel is lighted on the north
and east by inserted 15th-century windows, with a
wall passage at the level of their sills, opening at the
south to the Lady chapel and at the north-west to
the stair turret. Below the east window is a 15th-century reredos of seven bays with canopied niches,
the northern niche being deeper and taller than the
rest, as having held the image of the saint whose altar
the chapel contained. Below the niches is a string
with shields bearing the emblems of the Passion, the
arms of the see and St. George. The altar-space
beneath is now filled by one side of the raised tomb
of Sir Arnald de Gaveston, with shields of Gaveston,
England, Old France, and Castile and Leon; the rest of
this tomb with its effigy is in the middle aisle of the
vestibule, in the western bay. On the north wall of
the chapel is the monument of Bishop Mews, 1684–
1706, with his arms and a mitre and crozier hung
over it, and on the south wall the whole surface is
occupied by the monument of Richard Weston Lord
Portland, lord treasurer to Charles I, with a bronze
effigy by Lesueur. The turret stair opens to the
chapel at the north-west, having also a west doorway
to the vestibule, and in the second bay from the east
is a fine original locker, which has had double doors
and two tiers of shelves, the upper of marble and the
lower of wood. The chapel is closed at the west by
a modern wooden screen.

The south-east or Langton chapel contains the
Purbeck marble raised tomb of Bishop Langton, 1493–
1500, stripped of its brasses,
and has at the east a reredos
of seven canopied niches,
which probably dates from
Langton's general refitting of
the chapel. It bears many
traces of colour and marks of
the images it once held.
Below it the wall is plain and
shows the place of the altarslab, which was supported on
brackets or corbels 6 ft. 6 in.
apart. The 13th-century wall
arcades on the north and
south walls have been cut
back and their remains hidden
by Langton's panelling, which has a coved cornice with
pierced cresting and hanging tracery. The panelling
is divided into seven bays by twisted shafts once surmounted by small figures, and below is a continuous
seat with a front of pierced tracery. On the woodwork are shields with the arms of Langton impaled by
his sees of Winchester and Canterbury, and by a coat
bearing three leopards in a border charged with crosses
formy fitchy. The screen at the west of the chapel
is in five bays, with folding doors in the middle, the
lower panels solid and the upper with open tracery.
On the panels is repeated the motto 'Laus tibi Criste,'
and in one of the upper panels of the doors, the
other being broken, are the arms of Langton impaled
by the last-mentioned coat, the whole within a garter.

Langton. Or a cross quarterly azure and gules with five roses argent thereon.

The chapel is lighted on the east and south by
inserted 15th-century windows, above which on the
outside are two tiers of trefoiled arcades, into the
lower of which the heads of the inserted 15th-century
windows break. The design of the elevation is
obviously incomplete, the scheme of carrying up
this and the corresponding north-east chapel never
having been carried out. Towards the Lady chapel
the upper part of this chapel is pierced by four
arches under an arcade, which seems to have been
blank at first, the arches being cut through to improve
the lighting. The vault of this chapel belongs to
Langton's time, and bears his device of a tun with
TL, and another of a cockatrice on a tun. At the
springing of the vault is his motto, 'Laus tibi Criste,'
and on the vault are shields with his arms impaled
by Canterbury and Salisbury, the monogram of
our Lady, the shield with the three leopards in a
border, and another of a phoenix above a bridge.
At the south-west angle of the chapel is a stair turret
corresponding with that in the north-east chapel, but
its entrance to the chapel is blocked by Langton's
panelling. The details of the stair, the steps of
which are carried by a series of pointed arches
springing from small corbels, are exceedingly interesting and well wrought.

The vestibule, or three-bay building between the
Lady chapel and feretory, though forming part of
Lucy's scheme of enlargement, has probably very
little work of his time, and has also undergone a
good deal of alteration on account of the weakness
of its foundations. The external elevations are very
simple, a low-pitched roof now covering the building
in one span, while the aisles have a plain parapet
over a corbel course, and the bays are separated by
buttresses, there being in each bay two tall lancet
lights flanked by blank arcades of equal height. It
is vaulted in three spans, the aisle vaults springing at
a lower level than that of the middle span, and
having moulded ribs, while those of the middle span
have plain chamfers. The main arcades show several
differences of detail, marking stages in the work.
Their east responds, while ranging in height with the
western arches of the north-east and south-east
chapels, show differences in detail of bases and
capitals and breaks in the masonry, proving them to
be of later build, and while the arches of the eastern
bay of the main arcades are of similar detail to the
western arch of the Lady chapel, the vault ribs of the
main span cut into the latter in a way which shows
them to be due to a later scheme. The arch section
in the second bay is different from that in the first, and
again from that in the third bay, while the clustered
piers from which the arches spring, with their eight
banded shafts and foliate capitals, are entirely of
Purbeck marble set in lead joints, except in the
western responds, which have been rebuilt in stone
at the 14th-century alterations to the presbytery.
Round the aisle walls runs the trefoiled arcade with
quatrefoils in the spandrels, which occurs in the eastern
chapels, and the Purbeck vaulting shafts of the aisles
are carried down in front of it; in the same way the
shafts of the rear arches of the windows above are
carried down in front of the wall passage which runs
at the level of the window sills.

As a setting for the shrine of St. Swithun the
vestibule must have been a magnificent building, and
even now in its despoiled condition it is very effective.
It retains a great deal of its mediaeval flooring of
glazed tiles, and besides the beautiful chantry chapels of
Wayneflete and Beaufort which fill the middle bay of
the north and south arcades respectively, the chapels
of Gardiner and Fox and the screen of the 'Holy
Hole' between them at the west end go far to make
up for the loss of the original fittings. In this
connexion reference must be made to a number of
pieces of a beautiful Purbeck marble screen of c. 1300,
found during the late repairs and now in the crypt;
it seems most likely that it formed some part of
the fittings of this part of the church, though its
precise position must for the present be doubtful.

Several other monuments, not in their original
positions, are in the vestibule. In the north aisle
are those of Bishop Tocliffe 1174–89 or Peter des
Roches 1204–38, and Prior William de Basynge,
1295, and on the east wall that of Bishop Aylmer
with his arms of Valence, 1262, on a modern base.
In the south aisle is the monument of Sir John
Clobery, and in the middle aisle that of Sir Arnald
de Gaveston, one side of which is now in the northeast chapel, of Bishop de Lucy 1189–1204, and of
William de Westekarre, Bishop of Sidon 1456–86.

The Beaufort and Wayneflete chapels have a
general resemblance to each other, the latter having
doubtless been inspired by the former. Beaufort's
is built of Purbeck marble with leaded joints up
to the springing of the canopy, and has a wide
middle bay with a fan vault between narrower bays
vaulted at a lower level. Above the place of the
altar at the east end are three large and eight small
canopied niches, and on the crown of the middle
vault an angel holds the Beaufort arms. The raised
tomb is of Purbeck marble, but the effigy is a poor
thing of Charles II's time and the shields on the
sides of the tomb are repainted.

Wayneflete's chapel is all of stone and somewhat
more richly ornamented in
consequence; the principal
modifications in the design
taken from Beaufort's chapel
are the more elaborate treatment of the buttresses and
the less difference in height
between the vaults of the
three bays. The original doors
and their fittings on either
side of the west bay are preserved, and the effigy is also
original, of Purbeck marble,
on a stone tomb with marble
plinth and twisted angle
columns. On the crown of
the vault are the bishop's own arms held by an angel.

Wayneflete. Lozengy ermine and sable and a chief sable with three garden lilies therein.

The presbytery is of three bays closed by screens
on the north and south and at the east by the great
altar screen, behind which is the feretory on the site
of Walkelin's apse, bounded by a low wall on the
east, by Bishop Gardiner's chapel on the north and
by Bishop Fox's chapel on the south.

The rebuilding of this part of the church was begun
about 1320, the western responds of the 13th-century
arcades to the east being rebuilt at the same time.
The adaptation of the wider span of the presbytery to
that of the vestibule is very skilfully managed, the
arches on either side of the feretory being inclined
towards each other, in order to fall into the line of the
arcades to the east. Walkelin's presbytery was no doubt
taken down piece by piece as the work proceeded, and
the apse was the first part to be touched; the low
wall on the east with the two arches over it, the piers
and arch to the north of the feretory, and the walls
over them, are clearly earlier in date than the rest of
the 14th-century work. There seems to have been a
considerable break in the work, for the three bays on
either side of the presbytery and the arch on the
south of the feretory do not look earlier than the
middle of the 14th century. The window tracery in
the clearstory is of very plain character and difficult to
date, but, except in the eastern bay on the north side,
is probably contemporary with the walls in which it
is set. The treatment of the points of the cusps is
the same as that in the west end of the nave, in the
work attributed to Bishop Edington about 1360, and
this is approximately the time to which it must be
assigned. The east wall of this part of the church
was rebuilt from the springing of the vaults by Bishop
Fox about 1500, at the time when he was rebuilding
the north and south aisles; the high vault is also of
his time and the flying buttresses over the aisle roofs.

The great altar screen has been attributed to the
time of Bishop Beaufort, but probably belongs to the
latter part of the 15th century, like the similar screen
at St. Albans. It is in three stages with a cresting of
pierced stonework and in the middle, over the rood
which forms the centre of the design, a spirelet of the
most elaborate tracery work, from which the pyx was
suspended over the high altar. In modern times the
whole has been much restored and the various niches
filled with figures, on the whole very successfully. On
either side of the altar are doorways leading to the
feretory. This, which seems also to have been called
the Holy Hole, contains a 13th-century platform
ascended by steps at either end, where the bases of
pillars show that some canopy or superstructure once
existed. It was doubtless on this that the small
shrines containing the bones of kings and princes
formerly rested, visible over the low screen which
stood behind the high altar. The addition of the
great screen now existing hid them from view, until
Bishop Fox set up the stone screens on either side of
the presbytery and placed them on it. The feretory
is now used as a storehouse for the best of the fragments of mediaeval sculpture, &c., which have been
found on the site; there is a very fine 13th-century
figure, but the most remarkable objects are a set of
heads, perhaps of late 14th-century date, about life
size, and of most admirable workmanship. A late
13th-century oak chest with painted decoration is also
of much interest. The east wall of the feretory has
on its outer face a very beautiful arcade of nine gabled
canopies, c. 1320, with two pedestals in each canopy
with the names of the figures which once stood on
them, and the inscription:
'Corpora sanctorum sunt hic in pace sepulta;
Ex meritis quorum fulgent miracula multa.'
The two middle figures were those of Christ and His
mother, the others those of the early kings who were
connected with the history of the cathedral, of Queen
Emma, St. Birinus and Bishop Alwin. Below the
middle canopy is a low arch through which can be
seen a Romanesque arch, probably the substructure
of the bishop's seat set in the middle of the apse of
Walkelin's church.

The chapel of Bishop Gardiner, 1531–55, is Gothic
in form but full of Italian detail, the window tracery
and panelled vaults alone showing no trace of foreign
influence. The building is in two divisions, the
tomb-chapel and a vestry to the east of it. Over the
altar-place in the chapel is a round-headed niche with
Ionic pilasters and cornice, between a pair of niches
with figures of the Church and the Synagogue, and on
a panel below the middle niche are Gardiner's initials,
S. G. The vestry has had glass in its windows, but
those of the chapel were never glazed. On the vault
are the arms of Gardiner and of the see, and the
griffons' heads of his arms
occur as finials in the strapwork cresting above the
cornice of the chapel. Below
the chapel and opening to the
north aisle is a low arched
recess in which lies a 'cadaver,'
now much damaged. Fox's
chapel, 1500–28, has, like
Gardiner's chapel, a small
vestry at the east and a recess
beneath the chapel proper
with a 'cadaver,' and doubtless inspired the designer of
the later building. The chapel
is of the finest and most
elaborate late Gothic detail, with no trace of Italian
influence except in the small brackets on which the
arcaded panelling rests at the
base of the walls. The vestry
windows are grooved for glass
and on the north side of the
vestry one bay of the 14th-century screen, closing the
feretory on the east, is included, and owing to its protected position shows traces
of painting which do not
occur elsewhere on the screen.

Gardiner. Argent a cross sable between four griffons' heads razed azure with a garden lily argent upon the cross.

Fox. Azure a pelican or.

Over the altar-place in the
chapel are three large niches
and sixteen smaller ones, a
band of angels with shields having the emblems of the
Passion upon them, and the arms of Fox impaled by the
see of Winchester at either side. Over the panelled
recess above the site of the altar is an inscription:

'O sacrum [convivium in] quo Christus sumitur.'

On the chapel vault are the royal arms supported
by a red dragon and a silver greyhound, the arms of
Fox, Durham and Winchester, and Fox's badge of a
polican occurs constantly. His motto 'Est Deo gracia'
is in the spandrels of the doorway.

The screens closing in the presbytery, which bear
the date 1525, are of late Gothic design with pairs of
four-light traceried openings in each bay except the
west, where there are doorways, the upper entrances
to the quire; but the cornice of the screens is of fine
Italian work, that on the south being rather richer
than the other. On the bedmould of the cornice is
a series of shields carved with the arms of the see,
the arms, badge and motto of Bishop Fox, and other
shields bearing a cheveron between three owls with
a rose on the cheveron, the arms of Hugh Oldham.
Bishop of Exeter, co-founder with Fox of Corpus
Christi College at Oxford, a cheveron between three
cinqfoils with three bezants on the cheveron, the
arms of Edward the Confessor, of St. George, of
King Henry VIII, a cheveron between three swans
with a rose on the cheveron, emblems of the Passion,
the motto of Cardinal Beaufort 'In Domino confido,'
and the initials W. F. and H. B., for William Frost,
Steward, and Henry Broke, Prior, and motto 'Sit
laus Deo.'

Of the six chests which stand on the screens and
contain the bones purporting to be those of the kings
of Wessex, Kynegils and Kenulf, with their successors
the Saxon kings of England, Egbert, Ethelwulf, Edmund
and Edred, with Cnut, Queen Emma and William
Rufus, and Bishops Wina and Alwin, four belong to
Fox's time and the two in the western bay are copies
made in 1661. But older chests, of 15th-century
date, are inclosed in those which are now to be seen.
The bones are jumbled together and quite impossible
to identify, having been scattered in 1642 and probably disturbed on more than one previous occasion.
Indeed, it is clear that this confusion began in the
12th century, when Bishop Henry of Blois collected
the bones from the site of the Saxon church and put
them into lead coffins in the feretory. Other bones
were deposited by Fox in the base of the presbytery
screens, as the inscriptions show, as Harthacnut,
Edmund, Richard Duke of Beorn, and the heart of
Bishop Nicholas de Ely. Bishop Richard Tocliffe,
1189, and John of Pontoise, 1304, are buried in
this part of the church, and Bishop Courtenay,
1486–92, has a modern monument, with part of the
original lead coffin set in it.

The east gable of the presbytery is the work of
Bishop Fox and contains a seven-light window, flanked
by angle turrets, the gable being enriched with panelling and finished by a canopied niche. The presbytery vault is of wood, and also of Fox's time, and has
a series of carved and painted bosses, with the emblems
of the Passion, the arms of St. Edmund and St. Edward,
of Henry VII and Prince Arthur impaling the royal
arms of Spain, which dates the work to about 1502,
of Bishop Fox impaled by the sees of Bath and Wells,
Exeter, the arms of these sees separately, Durham and
Winchester, the initials and badges of Henry VII,
and the initials of Prior Silkstede.

In the aisles the vaults are of stone and of the same
period, the bosses bearing devices showing that they
belong to Fox's work. The aisle windows are of four
lights with a transom and have segmental heads like
those in the nave, the rest of the wall surface on the
inside being filled with panelling; in the western bay
on either side the windows are partly overlapped by
the eastern chapels of the transepts.

The transepts, as has been said, preserve Walkelin's
design in all its essentials, though the parts nearest
the central tower have been rebuilt after its fall in
1106 and are easily distinguished from the rest by the
finer tooling and jointing of the masonry. The later
alterations consist for the most part in the insertion
of 14th and 15th-century windows in the original
openings, but in the north transept the outer face of
the west clearstory has been rebuilt, probably late in
the 15th century, to harmonize with the nave, and
the north gable has also been rebuilt and a round
window with radiating tracery set in it. The north
transept has been stripped of its screens and fittings,
but in the western arch of the central of the three
eastern chapels two fine early 14th-century canopied
niches remain, cutting off the lower parts of the shafts
of the arch. An original outer entrance to this
transept, now blocked, is to be seen in the south bay
of the west aisle; the position is unusual, but being
on the side away from the monastic buildings, it
probably served, as at St. Albans, as an entrance for
townsfolk and strangers. In the south transept the
aisles are still screened off from the body of the
transept and are now used as chapter-house and
vestries. The north bay of the west aisle is inclosed
by solid masonry walls of late 12th-century date,
doubtless the work of Henry of Blois, but of different
detail from anything else in the church, having in each
arch two bays of blank arcades with richly ornamented
arches and a fluted pilaster in the middle continued
above the arches. In the east arch the arcades are
elliptical or bluntly-pointed, the space being too
narrow for semicircular arches. The return of the
aisle across the south end of the transept is masked
by panelled woodwork with a continuous seat and
cornice dating from the time of Prior Silkstede and
bearing his initials T. S. and T. P. (for Thomas
Prior), the date 1516 and the arms of the see. The
screen is returned at the west for one bay northward
and over the door leading into the western aisle—
now used as the chapter-house—is a shield bearing a
millrind cross. The north-east chapel is inclosed at
the west by a 15th-century stone screen, the openings
of which are filled with admirable 18th-century ironwork, bearing the arms: Argent on a cheveron sable
three trefoils or. The east window, c. 1320, is of
three lights with a little old heraldic glass and on the
south is a 15th-century wooden screen on a stone
base. The adjoining chapel to the south, known as
Silkstede's chapel, has a 15th-century stone screen at
the west, the net tracery in its upper lights giving it
an earlier look than the rest of the details warrant;
the cornice seems to have been altered in the
16th century and bears the name of Thomas S(ilkstede). The east window is of five lights, c. 1300,
and below it the wall is painted, with traces of finely
drawn canopies flanked by pinnacles and having
figure subjects beneath. The line of the altar slab is
to be seen and on either side of it, 9 ft. apart, are
Purbeck marble shafts 4 ft. high, set against the wall.
In this chapel is the gravestone of Isaac Walton, 1683,
with an inscription composed by Bishop Ken. The
third of the eastern chapels has a large 15th-century
east window of five lights, taking up the whole of the
east wall. At the south-east angle is the stair to the
triforium and in the south wall an original window,
now blocked by the library, a 17th-century building
set over the slype. The west wall is of 18th-century
date and on the north side is a mutilated 15th-century
screen on a stone base.

The central tower is of three stages, rising only
one stage above the ridges of the roofs and was
designed as a lantern, open to the roof of the top
stage; its internal effect is quite spoilt by the
insertion of a wooden vault early in the 17th century (1634) at the level of the crossing arches. The
piers of the crossing are very massive and perhaps
inclose those of Walkelin's tower. The crossing arches
are plain and square-edged, but the stories over
them have tall arcades with groups of shafts and
arches enriched with zigzag and billet ornament.
There are four of these on each side of the interior
of the second stage and in the third stage three tall
round-headed windows on each side, with blank
arcades between and at sill level a passage masked by
open arcades below the piers separating the windows.
Externally these windows are of three orders with
shafted jambs and billet-moulded labels, with zigzag
on one order of the arch. The parapets are plain
and modern and there is no evidence of the original
finish of the tower, which is very low and inconspicuous in comparison with other English central
towers. Its rebuilders were doubtless distrustful of its
foundations and it was clearly not designed to carry
bells. The space under the tower and the first bay
of the nave is taken up by the stalls, which date
largely from the end of the 13th century and are a
magnificent piece of woodwork. There are sixty-two
seats in the upper row, ten being return stalls at the
west and the canopies, except those added at the west
when the stone pulpitum, a fine early 17th-century
work, was destroyed, are in the main original and
have tall traceried and gabled heads on slender
shafts, the back panelling being arcaded in two tiers,
with spandrels carved with extremely beautiful
naturalistic foliage. Between the canopies are pinnacles of which nearly all belong to Bishop Morley's
time, c. 1670. The lower rows of seats have carved
fronts of c. 1540 with the arms of Dean Kingsmill,
Bishop Gardiner and Henry VIII. The misericordes
are of the date of the stalls and at the east end of the
north row of stalls is the canopied pulpit made by
Prior Silkstede, with the twisted skeins of silk in its
tracery which he used as a play on his name. Opposite to it is the modern bishop's throne. In the
middle of the quire is the early coped tomb commonly called that of William Rufus, but most
probably belonging to Bishop Henry of Blois, 1171.

One bay west of the stalls and pulpitum stood the
rood screen, with a platform and steps in front of it as
now, though the screen has been destroyed. On
either side of the steps were chapels, and that the
screen and chapels were not disturbed at the time of
Wykeham's alterations is clear from the shafts and
capitals of Walkelin's nave which are preserved in
the eastern bays of the north arcade and clearly owe
their preservation to the fact that they were masked
by woodwork when the rest of the nave was being
remodelled. In the tower arches north and south of
the quire were other chapels, and that on the north,
the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, is a very fine late
12th-century work in two vaulted bays, preserving a
great deal of its original colour decoration. The
subjects form a complete series of the events in the
history of our Lord, from the Annunciation to the
Resurrection and have been fully described in the
Proceedings of the British Archaeological Association
for 1845 by Mr. J. G. Waller.

Above this chapel is the organ, nearly filling the
whole space under the crossing arch, and opposite to
it on the south side of the quire is a modern stone
screen and arch inclosing the monument of Sir Isaac
Townsend, 1731, and flanked by stairs leading to a
gallery at the level of the canopies of the stalls. In
front of the screen stands a very solid oak bench with
carved finials, the date of which is still in dispute, but
has been considered as early as the 12th century.

The nave is of twelve bays, and is a magnificent
work in spite of its lack of the original colour in the
windows, having all the decorative effect of the later
Gothic with none of its weakness. This is to some
degree conditioned by the retention of the Romanesque
masonry of the piers, but all the detail is very bold
and vigorous, and the lines of the high vault entirely
dispel any effect of heaviness which the depth of the
ribs and the scale of the bosses might be expected to
produce. A few of the bosses of the nave and aisles
have shields of arms upon them, among which will be
noticed the arms of Edward III, 'the shield for peace'
of the Black Prince, William of Wykeham's cheverons
and roses, the keys and sword of the see, the cross and
martlets attributed to Edward the Confessor and the
cross of St. George. The arches of the main arcades are
four-centred, and have panelled spandrels over which
runs a cornice with large carved paterae carrying an
open parapet at the base of the clearstory. The clearstory windows are of three cinquefoiled lights with
cusped oval openings in the tracery above, and have
segmental arches flanked by panelled wall surfaces.
A line of cinquefoiled panelling runs below the window
sills, and in the lower parts of the panels are openings
to the space over the aisle vaults, from which the
heavy flying buttresses which take the thrust of the
high vaults can be seen. The aisle windows are of
the same character as those of the clearstory but
taller, and have transoms dividing the main lights;
below them are tall cinquefoiled panels, into which a
second series of cinquefoiled heads has been inserted
in modern times to serve as framing for the monuments with which the walls are quickly becoming
covered.

The external elevations are very plain, the parapets
being unbroken and having strings with paterae at
their bases, while the buttresses are stepped and have
in the aisles tall crocketed pinnacles, the flying arches
of the high vaults not showing above the aisle roofs,
which are of low pitch and leaded. The roofs of
the main span are remarkable for the size of their
tie-beams, the span being 34 ft. They are of oak,
and have a maximum depth of 24 in., and may well
be part of Walkelin's roof cut from Hempage wood.
The roof is of high pitch and has lately been repaired
and strengthened, the old arrangement of timbers
being preserved. The entrances to the nave are by
three doorways on the west, one in the north side of
the west bay of the north aisle, and four in the south
aisle. Two of these south doors are the normal east
and west doors from the cloisters; the east door is of
Wykeham's time, but the west, which is blocked and
mutilated, is part of the original work of the nave.
The third south door is of Wykeham's time, and is
in the fifth bay of the aisle, and there is a blocked
16th-century door in the bay next west of the west
cloister door.

The north door is inclosed by a beautiful 13th-century iron grate, and is known as St. Swithun's
door. It opens to the site of a chapel set against the
two west bays of the north aisle, and is supposed to
mark the site of St. Swithun's first burial-place to the
west of the Saxon minster.

The two bays in question, together with the west
front of the nave and one bay of the south aisle,
belong to the rebuilding attributed to Bishop Edington, and it is probable that the north-west chapel was
pulled down in consequence of this rebuilding. The
whole west front of the Romanesque church must
have been very ruinous at the time and was completely destroyed as far as the tower and its transepts
(if such they were) were concerned, a part only of
the south-west transept wall being left standing to
form a boundary wall of what is now one of the
prebendal houses. The present west front is not
very successful or worthy of its position. The vertical
and horizontal lines of the great west window of nine
lights and five tiers of transoms are repeated in the
panelling with which the gable above and the flanking
pinnacles are covered, and in the pierced parapet
over the three rather insignificant porches to
which the west doors open. The doorways are
small and narrow, single in the aisle and double in
the nave, with elaborate cusped heads; the porches
have vaulted ceilings and panelled walls, but the
general effect is monotonous and undistinguished.
The aisle windows are of four lights with very simple
tracery, and the buttresses finish with square traceried
and crocketed pinnacles. The large pinnacles which
flank the nave gable end in stone spirelets, and on
the apex of the gable is set a crocketed niche containing a figure of St. Swithun, lately renewed.

The great west window is filled with fragments of
15th-century glass collected from the nave windows,
and with the exception of the east window of the
presbytery, where Bishop Fox's glass remains, though
a good deal restored, is the only considerable survival
of the old glass with which the cathedral was once
filled. The most important tomb in the nave is
that of Bishop William of Wykeham, which takes
the place of the normal arch in the eighth bay of the
south arcade, rising to the level of the clearstory
passage. It has canted angles at each end adjoining
the piers of the arcade and three tall open bays on
each side with traceried heads and pierced screenwork filling the lower parts. The east end of the
tomb chapel has tiers of canopied niches, now filled
with modern statuary to commemorate the fivehundredth year of Winchester College. The altartomb of Wykeham, with his effigy, is in very perfect
condition; the brass inscription round its edge preserving its original enamel ground though the heraldry
has been repainted. The bishop is in mass vestments,
and at his feet are three academics, perhaps his executors John Elmers, Nicholas Wykeham and John de
Campeden. In the third bay of the south arcade is
the tomb-chapel of Bishop
Edington, 1366, which is of
distinctly earlier style than
the work attributed to him at
the west end of the nave. It
has a cornice with trefoiled
cresting of unusual character
and two tiers of open traceried
panelling on each side, with
north and south doors. The
effigy is in good condition,
and the raised tomb retains
the enamel ground of its
marginal inscription like that
of Wykeham. Opposite to
Edington's tomb is that of Bishop Morley, a flat slab
with arms and inscription.

Edington. Or a cross engrailed gules with five cinqfoils or thereon.

The nave pulpit is 17th-century work, and was
formerly in New College Chapel, Oxford.

The font stands in the seventh bay of the north
arcade, and is one of the black Tournai marble fonts
of mid-12th-century date, of which seven exist in
England. Carved on it are four scenes from the
legend of St. Nicholas, taking up two of the four
faces of the bowl; the other two faces have each
three circles inclosing doves, or in one instance a
lion.

There are twelve bells in the tower, the three
oldest dating only from 1734.

The plate consists of two chalices, two patens, two
flagons and an almsdish, all silver gilt, of 1792;
two chalices and two patens of 1884 and a flagon of
1887, also silver gilt. There are also four plated
alms-plates.

The registers are in one volume, which contains
baptisms and burials 1599 to 1812 and marriages
1603 to 1754. There are gaps in the baptisms
1642 to 1665 and 1666 to 1670 and in the marriages
1641 to 1670. The burials 1665 to 1666 are
wanting. On the fly-leaf are the names of six persons
buried in the cathedral 1580 to 1598.

MONASTIC BUILDINGS

The cloister lay on the south side
of the church, but is entirely destroyed, though its square can be
recovered. It was not vaulted, and
the only traces of it left on the church walls are
some vertical chases for timbers. The southern
range of claustral buildings, in which the frater
stood, is all destroyed except a small piece at the
west of 13th-century date, which was probably part
of the kitchen, and adjoining it on the north-west is
the only remaining part of the western range, also of
the 13th century, stone-vaulted on the ground story
in three bays, but so altered in the upper story in
the 16th century that nothing but traces of a south
window, with a pretty circular traceried opening in
the gable above, are now to be seen. It is now
used as a house, and contains some good panelling
and heraldic glass, and a very interesting relic in the
shape of two 13th-century supports for one of the
tables in the frater, now serving to support a wooden
table-top.

The eastern range of claustral buildings, though
better preserved than the rest, is but fragmentary.
The cemetery passage at the south end of the south
transept is of Walkelin's date, but its upper part was
rebuilt in the 17th century when the library was
put upon it, and much of its original masonry is now
being cased in modern stone to buttress the transept.
The chapter-house, immediately to the south, is also
of Walkelin's time, and was a rectangle 88 ft. by
38 ft., covered with a barrel vault of stone, and
having on the north, south and east a round arched
wall arcade with shafts and cushion capitals, but
only the arcade on the north wall now remains.
At the west five round-headed arches on large circular
columns with cushion capitals opened to the cloister,
the middle arch being wider and higher than the
rest, and these still remain perfect, a most valuable
example of the arrangement of an 11th-century
chapter-house entrance. The great dorter, running
east and west, adjoined the chapter-house on the
south, and its doorway to the cloister, a 13th-century insertion with Purbeck marble tympanum
and jambs, opens to the north-west corner of its
ground story. No traces of a stair to the upper
floor exist. On the south side of the ground story
are remains of several windows of good 12th-century
detail, c. 1160, at which date the range may have
been rebuilt. The 12th-century drain of the reredorter, running east and west, has been uncovered
to the east of this site.

South of the dorter is the best preserved part of
the range—namely, the prior's house, now the
deanery, with a fine 15th-century hall on the west
side, now divided into two stories, but retaining its
original open-timbered roof and traceried west
windows. The entrance to the deanery is on the
south, and to the east of the hall, and is of fine 13th-century work, with a vaulted vestibule of three bays
opening by three arches to the close, with a trefoiled
wall arcade with pointed sub-arches on the east.
The rest of the house has been much altered in later
times and contains some good panelling; on the
north-east a late 17th-century two-story building
has been added, having a library on the upper floor
and an open arcade beneath. The dean's stables, to
the south-east, are part of a fine 14th-century wooden
hall with an open roof.

To the south-west of the site of the cloister is
Dome Alley, two rows of fine early 17th-century
brick houses facing on to a narrow lane which ends
westward in a small round gravelled space. The
lead work of the gutters and down pipes is very good,
as well as the details of the brick cornices. It has
been suggested that the lane represents the hall of
the monastic infirmary and the houses its aisles, but
no definite evidence exists.

West of the church in the north wall of the garden
of the house now occupied by the Archdeacon of
Winchester are remains of a 14th-century charnel
chapel. The boundary walls of the precinct exist on
the south in a very perfect state, and less perfectly on
the west and east; traces of a west gate are to be
seen, and the south gate, opening westward close to
Kingsgate in the city walls, is well-preserved 13th-century work. Eastward from this point the town
and precinct walls coincide, and immediately within
the south gate is the picturesque house known as
Cheyney Court, already described. No other building within the close dates back before the suppression
of the monastery, but the other prebendal houses are
mostly of 17th and 18th-century date, chiefly of red
brick, and for the most part harmonizing very well
with their surroundings.

In the precinct wall to the north-east of the
church are built in several of the small columns which
also occur in the masonry of Wolvesey Castle, and
have been supposed to be from the cloister of the New
Minster, destroyed on its removal to Hyde in 1110.